ENERGY LAW GUIDE: Reclamation, Disposal, and Decommissioning

Rule 3.1.g.7 provides that "[t]he applicant shall describe post useful life demolition, removal, disposal, and restoration plans for facilities."

In many regions of the world, flooded mines are a potentially cost-effective option for
heating and cooling using geothermal heat pump systems. For example, a single coal seam in
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio contains 5.1 x 1012 L of water. The growing volume of water
discharging from this one coal seam totals 380,000 L/min, which could theoretically heat and cool
20,000 homes.

Using aquaculture as a post-mining land use has resulted in financial savings in site reclamation, increased positive media attention for coal companies, and new biosecure water sources for commercial aquaculture operations in the West Virginia coal region. Large underground coal mines in Appalachia have created numerous gravity flow sources of water. These mine water sources are often nearly ideal in temperature, alkalinity, and pH for trout and have the additional value of being devoid of any

The objective of this study was to identify and determine the size of tree species that naturally colonised surface mine sites after 20 years with no initial tree planting. The trees naturally colonising on disturbed sites may indicate which tree species should be transplanted on these sites and those which have the greatest chance for survival and growth.

In light of Japan’s nuclear disaster, a major lesson can be learned related to the back end of the fuel cycle: Planning is necessary for the safe and secure management of spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. But the topic of storing waste continues to be subject to last-minute solutions, as the experiences of a number of countries besides Japan show. Countries with nuclear power programs need a medium-term strategy for spent fuel storage prior to the long-term plan for spent fuel or high-leve